Friday, June 10, 2016

The Witch (2015)

The Witch (2015)

Director: Robert Eggers

Cast: Anya Taylor Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Harvey
Scrimshaw

The quintessential ‘good horror film’ is a diamond in the
rough, hard to find, elusive, so when it comes across your path you thank the
cinematic gods for it; you cherish it like the delicacy that it is. The Witch
is such a film, a true blue fantastic horror film that plays with your notions
of religiosity and the supernatural. It takes place during the sixteenth
century in New England, a place and time in which being a witch meant you’d get
either tortured or hanged, most of the time both.

On a personal note, it’s interesting that I saw The Witch days
after taking a college class on the late works of William Shakespeare. On said
class I wrote an essay on the supernatural elements in Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
In this essay, I wondered if Macbeth, the power hungry king, had actually
spoken to witches and seen actual ghosts and apparitions, or if it was all just
part of a head trip in his guilt ridden mind. I concluded that it was a little
bit of both. The Witch is similar to Macbeth in that sense; it keeps you on a
loop about the witches. Are they real? Are the village folks simply bible
crazy? Are they simply religious fanatics willing to take their beliefs to the
extremes? Or are witches really snatching up babies for sacrificial purposes?

On The Witch we meet a family of Puritans who are psychologically
traumatized by the fact that their baby has disappeared. I mean, literally, the
baby was there one moment and the next it wasn’t, vanished into thin air. To
make matters worse, the baby disappeared while under the care of the adopted
daughter of the family, a girl whom they’ve always suspected of being a witch.
But is she? Are they just looking for a scapegoat to blame? As you can see,
there are always two possibilities to everything in The Witch; there’s that ambiguity
to the story which I loved. You’re never really sure where to stand, which in
my opinion makes the film incredibly effective.

Artistically speaking the film is a wonder to behold, the
art direction, the wardrobe, the dialog; it all evokes its era to perfection.
For starters, the film was mostly shot with natural lighting, this means,
little to no artificial light was used during the shoot, which gives the film
an amazing look. Interiors were lit with candles; exteriors were lit by the
sunlight. Few directors have pulled this
off effectively because it’s a difficult way to shoot a film, a lot can go
wrong; you risk images ending up grainy and losing definition. Yet on The
Witch, this natural lighting goes so well with the era they are depicting, an
era where there was no electricity. Last time I checked, Stanley Kubrick was
the last one to pull this off perfectly in Barry Lyndon (1975). So The Witch
has a great spooky dark look to it. Another added bonus that adds authenticity
to the film is that the dialog rings true. It doesn’t feel out of time or place;
this is due to the fact that they used real life accounts of “witchcraft” to
write the screenplay. This is why the dialog sounds like something straight out
of Shakespeare.

They also got the behavior of these characters right. You
feel the backwards mentality of these Puritan Christians. You believe they
truly think evil lies within the woods. You feel the paranoia, you feel that
genuine fear of God and the Devil and you feel how dangerous it all is. How
once you got blamed for possibly being a witch meant you were going to go down
even if you weren’t, because now doubt had been planted. The film shows how
dangerous religion and hive like mentality can be. How superstition can turn
its back on you and bite you in the ass in a heartbeat! I mean, back then they used witchcraft as an
excuse to kill a person. Let’s say you were a rebellious woman who had an
opinion, suddenly they’d blame you for witchcraft and boom, days later you’d be
hanging from the ugly end of the rope. A lot of innocent women died this way.
So you get that vibe with this film, that when the masses turn on you, you’re
done for. For more films dealing with witchcraft watch The Crucible (1996),
Witchfinder General (1968) or Haxan: Witchcraft through the Ages (1922), the
last one being an exploration of the origins of witchcraft.

I have to hand it to director Robert Eggers for doing his
homework and making sure every little detail is faithful to the time period, the 1600's. I
mean, so many things worked in favor of this film, right down to shooting in a remote, real location where these actors
could cut loose, that was genius. This isn’t some set in a green room, the
exteriors were shot a real location, with real freaking trees and mountains and
wind, that’s a plus for me in this day and age of computer generated everything’s. The isolated location lends itself to making everything look evil somehow, you know those films that make even nature and animals look evil somehow? Films like Lars Von Trier's Antichrist (2009)? Well, that's what they achieved with The Witch, where even aninals look like they could have evil within them, more so if they are black goats. And speaking of solid performances, that’s what you get all around. Special
shout out to Harvey Scrimshaw, the child actor who portrayed the character
called ‘Caleb’, he really knocks it out of the park with his performance. He
portrayed a child whose psyche has been damaged by religion and its fears. And
while I’m at it, kudos to first time director Robert Eggers who made this fine
film on his first outing. Here’s hoping this wasn’t just some fluke and he ends
up making more films as good as this one.

6 comments:

As this movie did not come to theaters in my country, i had to watch it from a movie website. There were so many negative comments from religious people at the comment section of the website! The funny thing is that i live in a Muslim country, our devil&witch beliefs are totally different and still, those Muslim devouts found things to be angry of a movie about Christian witch beliefs. Well, it seems crazy people are the same everywhere.

Odenat: I found your comment so interesting! The way witches are seen in different parts of the world must differ a lot!.This film depicts the way they were seen in New England, back when what we now know as the United States was being colonized. It's actually very accurate in regards to the way things were during the 1600's in New England. I'm curious as to why the people of your country find the film offensive? Thanks for your comments!

Cinema Revisited: It's totally worth it, a slow burner! It creeps under your skin type of deal! Dont expect a special effect field thrill a minute type of deal, it's the opposite of that.

Fransisco, generally the comments are unhappy about how the movie is making a propaganda that "witches&devil is more powerful than Bible&God". Muslims does not think of devil as a horned being walking on Earth. Instead, we have Jinns (both good and evil) who teach people magic. And even in Quran, it's written that Jinns exist and it's forbidden to learn magic. You can read following website for more on Jinns;

Thanks for your informative reply Odenat! It's true, sadly, religious fanaticism is everywhere! Yet I find the different religious beliefs so interesting, the information you posted about Jinns I found fascinating! I will read the link you posted thanks a lot for it. Religion is a social phenomenon that affects us all. Do we need it? Can we all live our lives happier without it? Things to think about.